Plans to update South Dundas’ ‘economic plan’ move forward

At the March 20th South Dundas council meeting, economic development officer Nicole Sullivan recommended “that council retain the services of McSweeney & Associates to complete an update to the 2005 South Dundas Strategic Economic Development Plan for a cost of $10,000.”

As reported earlier this year, Sullivan, with permission from council, submitted a completed application to the Eastern Ontario Development Program (EODP) for funding to complete the project to update the 2005 economic plan.

“As part of that application,” she said, “we were required to have two quotes with it.”

“Quotes were obtained from Dillon Consulting and McSweeney & Associates whose services were retained to complete the South Dundas Community Strategic Plan and the SD&G Strategic Economic Development Action Plan respectively.”

Project objectives include:

• “Provide a realistic and strategic approach to economic development for the next five years;

• Align local economic development efforts with those of the community and region, identifying complementary and mutually supportive activities; and,

• Encourage advancement and accountability in local economic development.”

Sullivan’s recommendation for McSweeney & Associates was based on a group decision following a review and discussion period. The group included mayor Steven Byvelds, chief administrative officer Stephen McDonald, chair of the economic development advisory committee Mark Prost, and Sullivan herself.

Attractions Ontario has named Darren Dalgleish, General Manager & CEO of the St. Lawrence Parks Commission as one of two recipients of the Tourism Champion of the Year award.

Attractions Ontario introduced the new award category “Tourism Champion of the Year” in 2013, to recognize individuals in the tourism industry with the following criteria:

•provided significant organizational employee assistance, commitment, enthusiasm and used specific expertise in guiding the business

•provided exceptional internal and external customer service

•shown exemplary initiative and leadership

•illustrated depth of involvement in the business.

Darren Dalgleish joined the SLPC in April 2011, charged with the challenge to execute a corporate transformation to create business growth and long term sustainability.

Bringing with him extensive experience in business renewal and development, in just two years he has led the implementation of significant changes at the St. Lawrence Parks Commission to ‘lean’ business processes and reduce waste, improve market share, cost effectiveness, preserve the core attractions and enrich opportunities around them, research and build new events with a primary focus on customer satisfaction.

Dalgleish introduced the ‘Kaizen’ business philosophy of continuous improvement and has engaged staff from all levels of the organization to identify and bring forward ideas for incremental change improvement. The results of a net performance improvement of 40 percent speaks for itself.

Dalgleish is quick to share the honour with his team commenting: “We wouldn’t realize the business results we’ve achieved in the past two years without the entire St. Lawrence Parks team working cohesively and without the combined innovation and enthusiasm that our staff share for our attractions, recreational products and experiential integration and satisfaction.”

The SLPC staff have enjoyed recent industry accolades for event excellence from Festivals and Events Ontario including 2012 Top New Event of the Year honours for Upper Canada Village’s new fall event Pumpkinferno and Top 100 Events in Ontario for Fort Henry’s Sunset Ceremonies (eighth time) and Upper Canada Village’s winter lights festival Alight at Night (third time).

Looking forward to 2013, Dalgleish has exciting plans for more improvements and the introduction of exciting new events and program enhancements.

“We are just starting to hit our stride. This summer we will introduce an exciting new high-tech sound and light wall projection experience as part of Fort Henry’s Sunset Ceremonies that will transform the visitor experience. In August we will host the PGA Tour Canada ‘Great Waterway Classic’ at Upper Canada Golf Course. This will be the first PGA Tour Canada event in Ontario.”

“Upper Canada Village is developing another new event called ‘Food Lover’s Field Days’ scheduled for August. Plus we have invested over $1.6 million in our parks infrastructure to vastly improve our visitor services and their experience camping in our campgrounds. It’s another exciting year of growth and support for our surrounding communities and partners.”

Celebrate Ontario recently awarded the SLPC $300,000 to fund four events including Fort Henry’s Concert Series and Fort Fright and Upper Canada Village’s Pumpkinferno and Alight at Night.

The SLPC strives to boost the local economy through the enrichment of product mix and is confident that the regional communities and municipalities will realize significant benefits.

Product enrichment is a key part of the SLPC’s strategic direction to serve the community in a thoughtful and entrepreneurial manner by making its vast array of attractions and experiences more economically accessible and collaborative while at the same time ensuring future growth and fiscal improvement.

There are only two ways to expand a Business Improvement Area; one is to build new infrastructure within the existing area, and the other is to welcome membership from a larger geographic area.

Because at this point, construction is not a feasible option, the Morrisburg Downtown Business Improvement Area is readily accepting Associate Members from outside their traditional boundaries.

Technically, always named the Morrisburg Downtown Business Improvement Area, the Morrisburg BIA is now formally using DBIA as an acronym, to reflect the changes.

Membership in the Morrisburg DBIA has traditionally been limited to those businesses within the geographic limits of the Morrisburg Shopping Plaza and East End Promenade. The DBIA is now allowing any business within the geographic limits of the former Village of Morrisburg to join.

Associate members will receive most of the benefits of being a DBIA member, with the exception of beautification. DBIA benefits generally involve the inclusion in the various promotional efforts of the group, as the DBIA mandate is to promote the area as a business, tourist and shopping area.

The Morrisburg DBIA budget is generated via a property tax levy paid by the property owners in the plaza.

Associate members will not be subject to this levy, instead paying an annual membership fee, which the Morrisburg DBIA board has decided is similar to the average regular levy amount paid by ordinary members. The fee reflects the level of DBIA services the business will receive, explained Grace McDonough, coordinator for the Morrisburg DBIA.

She is pleased to report that they have already signed on a few associate members, and the membership drive has only just begun.

As a group, associate members will elect one representative to the board as a voting member.

Because the DBIA is a committee of council, the term of this board of management ends with the term of council, this month.

By January the DBIA will have a new municipal representative, which is appointed by council.

Councillor Jim Graham held the position for the last two terms of council.

McDonough says the DBIA plans to make some changes to its constitution and increase its board of management from five to seven members which includes the new associate member representative.